ENFIELD TRANSPORT USER GROUP

MINUTES OF AGM AND OPEN MEETING HELD 4TH SEPTEMBER 2019

DRAFT

Attendees: Peter Smith, Keith Maxwell, Dave Cockle (Chair), John Williams, Tony Wallis, Stephen Lloyd-Jones, Lindsay Rawlings, Philip Ridley, Linda Miller (acting secretary).

1. Apologies and welcome. Apologies were received from Robert Chester, Mike Carmi, Ray Knight and John Jewson

The group welcomed Stephen Lloyd-Jones, a new attendee.

It was reported that as John Jewson has now moved away from Enfield he would no longer be attending.

As there were fewer than 10 members present it was agreed that the AGM would need to be deferred once again.

Stephen reported that he had only heard about the group when he saw it reported in the Despatch and urged the group to use a wider range of publicity methods to encourage a wider range of attendees.

2. Minutes. The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted as a true record.

3. Matters arising: Cllr Lindsay Rawlings was asked if she had received any reply to her query regarding whether the LBE car park could be used in the evenings for people using Enfield Town Station, especially when events are arranged at the new Spurs stadium. There was an acute need for parking facilities now that Genotin Rd car park is gone. Lindsay reported that she had not received any response so far.

Dave Cockle reported that works to enable step-free access at Cockfosters station were to begin imminently. Work on the Grade II listed lighting was to be undertaken first and was expected to take only a few days.

4. updates. Dave then gave an update from the Train Operating Companies:

Govia Thameslink – while Govia’s performance had improved it was still not good. The company had only managed to achieve 78% of its trains arriving within 5 minutes of scheduled time. This is a key performance measure. Driver availability remains an issue, especially at weekends. The company has therefore implemented an action plan which includes rearranging the training programme so that fewer drivers are off at weekends; this seems to be leading to an improvement. In addition, delays to the introduction of the new trains (ie some, but not all, as had been expected by now, are in service) has meant less urgent need for driver training. The likelihood is that all trains will be in service by the end of the year.

The company reported that ‘contactless’ payments will be expanded to North and . However, Stephen pointed out that Oyster/contactless is not necessarily the cheapest option – paper tickets can in fact be cheaper. He also advised to watch out for ‘pay as you go’ options on the Enfield Town and Cheshunt lines – the best thing to do is to check the TfL farefinder site to check what the best fare option is for any one route.

There was agreement that there needs to be more clarity regarding fares. The fact that the various train operating companies all have different definitions of ‘off-peak’ adds to the confusion.

Some 4,200 responses had been received to the consultation about use of the Govia Thameslink Passenger benefit fund. Responses had covered around 96% of all Govia stations. The company will send the final list to DfT on the 13th September and the agreed list of schemes will be published on the 30th September.

London Overground – LO key performance measure is proportion of trains arriving within 3 minutes of intended. They are currently achieving over 94% arriving within that time. The new station at White Hart Lane has wider entrance and exit areas and has a lift so is now accessible. The new class 710 trains will start running in late 2019.

Greater Anglia - The new all day half hourly service from Meridian Water to Stratford would commence on Monday. Greater Anglia PPM performance statistics for the Lea Valley line are 88.8%. It was reported that new trains are expected for that line but there is no confirmed date for their arrival yet. The Greater Anglia report notes that more than 222 stations have been ‘adopted’ (by groups who maintain planting, noticeboards, etc) with only 29 of their stations remaining ‘unadopted’. They will shortly be launching ‘Community partnerships’ initiative [post-meeting note: you can find more information about these partnerships here].

The company is still threatening to run the new trains straight through Edmonton Green without stopping (because the new trains are too long for the current short platforms there) despite the council having written to object to this (note: in meetings passim it has been confirmed that the company has the option of selectively opening only the doors to the carriages that are alongside the platform) and despite the company going ahead with the ‘selective door opening’ strategy at Seven Sisters. The company’s final point is to note that all of the new ticket machines are linked to human assistants via CCTV.

Network Rail. Dave and Linda reported on a meeting that had taken place with the Senior Customer Experience Manager and newly appointed vegetation manager for . The background to this was the problems with complete vegetation removal at Hadley Wood and the extremely poor service in recent months on the Hertford loop line.

It was acknowledged that the company has a (deservedly) poor reputation for customer communications and the company is trying to address and improve this. They are undertaking a retraining programme to improve working behaviour.

The Varley report (vegetation management) – a status update was given on this; while the company agrees that they should be maintaining biodiversity along the line, many ‘old hands’ do not see this as part of the work. The new CEO is focusing on what the company should be doing; a major impediment to progress on this matter is ‘corporate memory’, unless this issue kept up in corporate memory the contractors will just carry on as before – ie carry on removing all vegetation. The company is hoping to ‘get smarter’ and now have Route Asset Management teams who will oversee this work. The routes have been re-grouped, there are now 5 route groupings instead of 8 – the LNE and Anglia routes have been combined into LNEMA. The route managers will have a more operational role.

The vegetation manager reported that they intend to remove all large vegetation up to a distance of 6.5 metres from the track and will pollard trees at 6.5 m. they will encourage biodiversity at grassland and scrub level. Historic trees, especially those such as oak trees, will be retained wherever possible. While the process is being managed by a recruit from the Forestry Commission and with an eye on maintaining biodiversity, nonetheless residents are likely to be find the changes a shock, and Dave and Linda had agreed on behalf of ETUG to help them get in touch with residents when actions were to be taken locally.

5. Bus review. Phil Ridley and Tony Wallis gave an update on the bus review, starting with summarising the history of this issue. The bus review had been carried out by ETUG with backing of LBE but its recommendations had been resisted by TfL officers. A few years ago LBE did attempt to review the proposals and had appointed consultants who had examined issues such as pinch points. Phil had now examined the proposals submitted to TfL and reviewed them in the light of other more recent developments, such as the Upper Lea Valley 1 and 2 proposals. Because of these more recent developments there is now the opportunity to look beyond a purely resource-neutral approach and/or an approach primarily focussed on Enfield, because some of the routes now go out towards Waltham Forest etc.

Phil and Tony gave a detailed account of the various implications for the routes through and across the borough. Peter noted that there were few recommendations for routes through the west of the borough. It was agreed that Peter, Phil and Tony would meet to flesh out the details for a proposal that would include the west of the borough and to Chase Farm.

John Williams reminded the group that it will be important to consider where bus drivers can take their breaks as this might be difficult to schedule in on a longer route.

There was a discussion about whether the Over 50s Forum might become advocates or champions for the document when it is finalised.

6. Public Transport Consultative Group. Peter Smith reported on the PTCG. There had been discussions of the bus review, the council’s ‘Access to All’ submission and it had been noted that there are currently engineering works at BHP station. The council re-affirmed that it is trying to get some public transport (ie bus service) to run to Forty Hall. Step-free access, with lifts on both sides at Silver Street, is still not on the planning horizon. The fact that TfL had removed the signage to NMH was again noted. Apparently the council would like the W6 to go along Barrowell Green, but this will be more difficult as they allegedly also intend to put cycle lanes along the same route, making progress for the bus more difficult. There is still no resolution to the issue of the NM hospital banning buses from entering their grounds. Dominic Millen is apparently supportive of the suggestion that the W10 route be extended to , making use of the passenger benefit fund to make the required changes.

7. Accessible transport. Linda reported that TfL has commissioned research into how to make bus stop boarders less dangerous for elderly and disabled people. WSP have been commissioned to undertake the research but the start date had been delayed due to problems in recruiting participants. ETUG and other bodies in the borough had therefore been helping the researchers to recruit participants. The group were seeking elderly, visually impaired, hearing impaired, cognitively impaired and mobility impaired people to take part. Linda also reported that despite the Minister for Disabled People expressing horror at the bus boarder design when members of ETUG and other campaigners had met with her, and it being clear that the moratorium on shared space designs that was issued following on from that meeting being intended to apply to bus stop boarders, nonetheless a subsequent clarification from James Brokenshire had been worded in such a way that it allowed LBE to continue to install the bus boarders; LBE’s intention is to continue with their installation along the A1010 north.

8. AOB. Dave reported that an enhancement in frequency of the Overground service. He had met with the TfL planners and they are looking for a 20 minute (3 trains/hour) service. This is very much welcomed and is being linked to the Greater Anglia Timetable review. However, it will take a while to overcome the Bethnal Green bottleneck. It was noted that Broxbourne is demanding a new station be built between Park Plaza and Turkey Street (just north of the M25). It was noted that the 377 had been re-routed, but no notice was posted to the bus stop, nor any information given regarding where passengers had to go to find the bus (the information was needed as the bus has been routed away from its normal run). Others gave examples of where this had happened too. There was no suggestion as to how to take this matter forward.

9. DONM. The date of next meeting was confirmed as the 26th November. It was agreed that an effort would be made to use social media and our other links to attract more members.